Pheromones

A pheromone is any chemical or set of chemicals produced by a living organism that transmits a message to other members of the same species. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. more...

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Their use among insects has been particularly well documented, although many vertebrates and plants also communicate using pheromones.

Explanation

Insect pheromones of pest species, such as the Japanese beetle and the gypsy moth, can be used to trap them for monitoring purposes or for control by creating confusion, disrupting mating and preventing them from laying eggs.

In mammals and reptiles, pheromones may be detected by the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ, which lies between the nose and mouth, although some are detected by regular olfactory membranes.

Terence McKenna proposed in his book Food of the Gods the controversial idea of exopheromones as chemical signals between members of different species, as opposed to among conspecifics. He suggested that certain chemicals produced in abundance in various hallucinogenic plants and fungi, such as dimethyltryptamine and psilocybin may act as pheromones produced by one species (the vegetal) waiting for absorption by various others (for example, early primates or hominids). In this way a kind of ecological pheromonal system may be at work among species and ecosystems that have coevolved closely for long stretches of time.

Origin of the term

The term "pheromone" was introduced by Peter Karlson and Adolf Butenandt in 1959, based on the Greek pherein (to transport) and hormon (to stimulate). They proposed the term to describe chemical signals from conspecifics which elicit innate behaviours soon after Butenandt characterised the first such chemical, Bombykol (a chemically well-characterized pheromone released by the female silkworm to attract mates). .

Types of pheromones

Aggregation pheromones

Produced by one or the other sex, these pheromones attract individuals of both sexes.

Alarm pheromones

Some species release a volatile substance when attacked by a predator that can trigger flight (in aphids) or aggression (in bees) in members of the same species. Pheromones also exist in plants:certain plants emit alarm pheromones when grazed upon, resulting in tannin production in neighboring plants. These tannins make the plants less appetizing for the herbivore.

Epideictic pheromones

Recognized in insects, these pheromones are different than territory pheromones. According to Fabre (translated from French), "Females who lay their eggs in these fruits deposit these mysterious substances in the vicinity of their clutch to signal to other females of the same species so that they will clutch elsewhere."

Read more at Wikipedia.org